[T]he Bush administration is a frequent consumer of polls, though it takes
extraordinary measures to appear that it isn't. This administration, unlike
Clinton's, rarely uses poll results to ply reporters or congressional leaders
for support. "It's rare to even hear talk of it unless you give a Bush guy a
couple of drinks," says one White House reporter. But Republican National
Committee filings show that Bush actually uses polls much more than he lets on,
in ways both similar and dissimilar to Clinton. Like Clinton, Bush is most
inclined to use polls when he's struggling. It's no coincidence that the
administration did its heaviest polling last summer, after the poorly received
rollout of its energy plan, and amid much talk of the "smallness" of the
presidency. A Washington Monthly analysis of Republican National Committee
disbursement filings revealed that Bush's principal pollsters received $346,000
in direct payments in 2001. Add to that the multiple boutique polling firms the
administration regularly employs for specialized and targeted polls and the
figure is closer to $1 million. That's about half the amount Clinton spent
during his first year; but while Clinton used polling to craft popular policies,
Bush uses polling to spin unpopular ones---arguably a much more cynical
undertaking.

Bush's principal pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, and his focus-group guru, Fred
Steeper, are the best-kept secrets in Washington. Both are respected but
low-key, proficient but tight-lipped, and, unlike such larger-than-life Clinton
pollsters as Dick Morris and Mark Penn, happy to remain anonymous. They toil in
the background, poll-testing the words and phrases the president uses to sell
his policies to an often-skeptical public; they're the Bush administration's
Cinderella. "In terms of the modern presidency," says Ron Faucheux, editor of
Campaigns & Elections, "van Lohuizen is the lowest-profile pollster we've ever
had." But as Bush shifts his focus back toward a domestic agenda, he'll be
relying on his pollsters more than everů